And, presumably, you will have plenty of snow over it, right? Snow is really an excellent mulch, however much I might actually dislike it...

Oh yes. It is only a question of when the snow hits and how long the ground is uncovered and subject to deep freezes. Once it snows it will cover the gardens with about 2'. Great insulation.

I didn't get my garlic planted today. It rained last night and the ground was soggy this morning, so the rock garden was the only place dry enough to plant. It's set to rain again tonight, so who knows when I'll get it done.

They're predicting 2-3 inches of rain for us..

What an interesting thread. I got all excited for my garlic and planted it 9-17-14... I sure hope it produces well.

Toni, I know that I wouldn't want mine already growing like that, because the tops would die back in the winter and then have to start over again in the spring (which would weaken the cloves) -- but for your zone I think it's likely that your timing will be perfect! Maybe @Drdawg could help in that department...

I just got an email from Franchii ("Seeds from Italy" or GrowItalian.com) advertising its garlic offerings.

$12 per 1/2 pound seems expensive!

Garlic Viola Francese
Garlic Bianco Francese - Certified Organic
Italiano Bianco Garlic - Certified Organic
Garlic Bianco Spagnolo
Garlic Rosso Spagnolo
Garlic Rossa di Sulmona
Garlic Early Italian White Softneck, Certified Organic

http://www.growitalian.com/cat...

I am not familiar with the majority of those garlics, but believe me, for quality, heirloom (organic or not) garlic, that price is about average. Check with me in May. That's when my garlic goes on sale. I hope to have about a dozen varieties and tend to opt towards more Creole, which is the king of the garlics.

I thought YOU were the King of the Garlic!

Hardly!

The lady at the botanical garden was really insistent about not planting garlic from outside. There are so many virus' out there. She will only buy from one supplier (whose name I don't remember). I felt sort of guilty with my garlic from Ken and Hood River. But it will go into my own raised beds and I promised I would not mulch it or give it away. She was really concerned about introducing diseases to our garlic up here.

Personally, I think that is silly and a bit paranoid to say the least. There are so many people with the "The sky is falling" attitude. You shouldn't feel guilty, Mary. All my garlic is heirloom, grown organically, and is carefully checked before shipping.

If you have any concerns at all, this is what I would do. When you are ready for planting, go ahead and divide the bulb into cloves. Mix up a solution of 1 tbls. baking soda and 1 tbls. liquid seaweed in 1 gal. of water. Soak those cloves in this solution for 12-16 hours. Follow this with a 5-10 min. soak in rubbing alcohol. Plant soon after or put the cloves on a brown paper sack and allow to dry. Plant as soon as you can though. IF you had to do one or the other soak, do the alcohol soak. Some people like to rinse their cloves after the alcohol soak, but that's not necessary.

I have done the above and find that the plants "appear" to grow better and the bulbs are a little larger than planting them untreated.

The seaweed is simply a stimulant/fertilizer for root growth so this kind of gives your garlic a "jump-start" in their growth.

She sort of backed off the next time I saw her. I just planted my garlic after breaking up the cloves. That is quite a process to go through as you described it. And besides, she also said NEVER put the garlic in water. lol. So I couldn't win no matter what.

Thanks Ken
Mary

I follow the exact same steps Ken does for planting garlic....the instructions came from someone that grew garlic for commercial purposes. I figured if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for my home garden. The garlic is going to get wet as soon as it's planted, so a little water beforehand shouldn't be all that bad

Makes perfectly good sense to me, Linda. It's not like I am going to soak the garlic for days or weeks.

I guess as long as we all have a method that works for us, that's the important thing. I must confess though, the smell of the seaweed emulsion while soaking the cloves is not exactly aromatic in a good way! I usually end up moving the containers downstairs overnight!

Can't blame you. Seaweed emulsion will never have an "appealing fragrance"!

mom2goldens wrote: "The garlic is going to get wet as soon as it's planted"

No kidding -- I really want to get mine in sometime in the next few days but we've had SO much rain lately... it is what it is, I guess!! We live near a (rather smallish) river, which is as high as it ever is during the spring -- normally at this time of year you can pretty much "walk across without getting your feet wet," at least in some places. If we get anything like the snow we had last year I can't quite imagine what it will be like in the spring! Back in the early 80's Lake Michigan was so high that it was lapping at the doorsteps of the people with houses on that side of the highway; since then the water has been down so far you have to walk for quite a ways to get TO the lake... looks like maybe it is rebounding!

Fortunately, my garden soil does drain well, so I don't expect to have any major problem!